Georgia fans ready for rare trip out West

Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was thrilling moviegoers, and the U.S. and Russia were competing for space dominance.

The year was 1960, and Georgia's football team traveled across the country to play Southern California, losing 10-3.

The 1960 trip was the last time Georgia journeyed west of the central time zone in the regular-season schedule, according to sportingnews.com.

Fast forward 48 years, and the Bulldogs will be headed west again, this time to take on Arizona State on Sept. 20 at Sun Devil Stadium.

"We've been pointing to this game for years," said Stuart Kent, president of the Phoenix chapter of the UGA Alumni Association. "We're really excited about it."

The game has all the makings for an early-season showdown: Southeastern Conference and Pac-10 rivalry, a potential No. 1 ranking for Georgia and a national TV audience.

Georgia easily sold its 7,300 ticket allotment for the game.

In fact, more than 2,500 fans who requested tickets through the school's ticket office had their requests denied, according to Tim Cearley, Georgia's director of ticket operations.

"A lot of people are treating this as an early bowl game trip," Cearley said.

Cearley said fans needed a lifetime contribution of $27,007 to the athletic department to have their requests fulfilled.

Only about 600 of the 7,300 Georgia tickets are in the lower level of Sun Devil Stadium. Those fans needed a $141,000 lifetime contribution.

Some Georgia fans knew that they would not make the priority point cutoff and looked for alternative options to buy tickets.

ASU single-game tickets don't go on sale until Aug. 14, but season tickets have been readily available, starting at $99. The cost is only $44 more than the cost for a single-game ticket to the game.

ASU's ticket office started receiving calls after Georgia fans published their ticket research on Internet message boards and blogs.

"There's no secret that they're creative, and they've found a way to buy tickets," said Jason Bunger, ASU director of ticket operations.

Bunger did not know the number of season tickets Georgia fans had purchased but said they could return unused tickets to be donated to local charities.

Many Georgia fans will be taking advantage of their trip west by planning extended excursions with side trips to the Grand Canyon or Las Vegas.

"We have a very savvy group of football fans," said Alan Thomas, Georgia's associate athletic director for external affairs. "A lot of folks have turned this into a football vacation."

Stephen Conatser of Athens, Ga., is not going to miss this game.

Conatser, 36, has missed only two Georgia football games, home or away, in 17 years.

"I personally know about 50 people that are going, and that's a conservative estimate," he said.

Putting a number on the Bulldogs contingency is difficult, but ASU fans should expect upward of 10,000, at least.

Many hotels in Tempe have been booked for months.

Conatser, who got his tickets through Georgia's ticket office, said he has booked a room at a Phoenix hotel and will visit the Grand Canyon the day after the game.

"Everybody is telling us how hot is going to be out there, but we're just looking forward to a new experience," he said. "I've been following Georgia for years, and we've never gone on a road trip like this. The farthest we go is Louisiana and Arkansas.